U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0186214A1, by Siwinski, published Dec. 12, 2002, shows a method for saving power in an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display having pixels comprised of red, green, blue and white light emitting subpixel elements. The white light emitting subpixel elements are more efficient than the other colored light emitting subpixel elements and are employed to reduce the power requirements of the display. In such a display, the red, green, blue and white light emitting subpixel elements can be illuminated to create any desired color within the gamut of the red, green, and blue light emitting subpixel elements. However, since the white light emitting subpixel elements are more efficient than the red, green, or blue light emitting subpixel element it is desirable to present any neutral color by turning on only the white light emitting subpixel element within a pixel containing the four light emitting subpixel elements.
While power efficiency is always desirable, it is particularly desirable in portable applications because an inefficient display limits the time the device can be used before the power source is recharged. In fact, for certain applications the rate of power consumption may be more important than any other display characteristic with the exception of visibility.
It has been known for many years that the human eye is most sensitive to greenish yellow light and less sensitive to red and blue light. More specifically, the spatial resolution of the human visual system is driven primarily by the luminance rather than the chrominance of a signal. Since green light provides the preponderance of luminance information in typical viewing environments, the spatial resolution of the visual system during normal daylight viewing conditions is highest for green light, lower for red light, and even lower for blue light when viewing images generated by a typical color balanced image capture and display system. This fact has been used in a variety of ways to optimize the frequency response of imaging systems.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0024618 A1, by Imai, published Feb. 28, 2002, describes a pixel having a square array of red, green, blue and white light emitting subpixel elements. This pattern may be commonly referred to as a quad pattern. A portion of a display device 10 showing an array of four such pixels 12 through 18 are shown in FIG. 1. As shown in this figure colors green G and white W having relatively large luminance components are positioned diagonally opposite. At the same time colors red R and blue B produce much less luminance energy than the green and white light emitting subpixel elements. However, because the exact pattern is repeated pixel to pixel, light is often emitted by one or two subpixel elements that are positioned close to one another and, therefore, banding artifacts (i.e., the visibility of dark lines within a row or column of the pixel structure) can be quite visible in this pattern.
It is known in the art to provide pixel patterns with red R, green G, and blue B stripes. A portion of such a display device 20 is shown in FIG. 2. As shown in this figure, a pixel 22 contains red R, green G, and blue B light emitting subpixel elements. Neighboring pixels are positioned within a grid around this pixel such that they are aligned in rows and columns. As with the quad pattern this pixel pattern can exhibit banding artifacts in regions of flat pure primary colors.
It is also known in the art that when relatively large pixels are displayed on a small display or when graphics image regions are likely to be shown that demand a uniform appearance, rows of light emitting subpixel elements may be offset horizontally to reduce the visibility of banding in a display device 30 as shown in FIG. 3. Commonly referred to as a delta pattern this pattern includes a similar pixel 32, having red R, green G, and blue B light emitting elements. However, unlike the stripe pattern, this pattern reduces the visibility of banding and improves the uniform appearance in areas of constant color by shifting the alignment of the red, green, and blue subpixel elements in alternating rows. Unfortunately, this pattern creates a visible jagged pattern in vertical lines containing primarily green light emitting subpixel elements as the human eye is very sensitive to offsets in light emitting subpixel elements that are high in luminance.
In European Patent Specification EP 0330361B1, issued Apr. 21, 1993, Stewart et. al. describe a display device for producing straight vertical and horizontal, and upwardly and downwardly sloping alpha-numeric lines. The pixels of the device were composed of cells ranked in order of brightness: brightest (W), bright (G), medium (R) and darkest (B). In that description the brightest and bright cells were required to be aligned substantially parallel to one axis. Additionally, it was required that the bright and darkest cells were diagonally aligned. However, because the exact pattern is repeated pixel to pixel, light is often emitted by one or two subpixel elements that are positioned close to one another and, therefore, banding artifacts (i.e., the visibility of dark lines within a row or column of the pixel structure) can be quite visible in this pattern. Additionally, if it is necessary to have cells with unequal area, it is difficult to resize these elements to maintain a symmetric pattern with straight horizontal and vertical gaps between the cells to allow electrical lines to pass through. It is also known to provide an OLED display having pixels with differently sized red, green and blue light emitting subpixel elements, wherein the relative sizes of the subpixel elements in a pixel are selected to extend the service life of the display. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,025 B1, issued Apr. 2, 2002 to Yamada.
There is a need, therefore, for an improved pixel pattern for color display devices that improves the uniformity of a pattern and yet avoids the visibility of jagged vertical or horizontal lines. Ideally, this pixel pattern will provide the enhanced power savings that is available, e.g., from a pattern containing red, green, blue and white subpixels and allow the relative sizes of the light emitting subpixel elements to be readily adjusted.